Aloha x 3

This is all of our belongings for the year packed and ready to hop on the taxi to the airport.  FYI: The taxi driver did question our packing abilities for a "vacation" to Hawaii and was impressed when we said we've been there for almost a year.

For those of you who have been watching our blog, we're sorry we have not posted anything in the last month and a half.  We ran into some friends of ours that said they were wondering if we were back since we hadn't updated the blog for so long, so we thought it would be fitting to make our last post a year from our date of departure into the great unknown.  We are back from our adventure in Hawaii.  We are so thankful we took the leap of faith in order to experience a different part of the USA.  We have been caught in a whirlwind these first weeks back.  After we flew home Racheal's aunt passed away, had several welcome home parties with friends and family, and hosted the kids' birthday parties.  Meanwhile, Lance and Racheal continued to apply for jobs and interview, and we're happy to report that we both signed contracts!   

The post title aloha x 3 represents the word Aloha.  Most people know that aloha mean hi but it also means good bye and love.  What a great word.  We all were feeling very bittersweet leaving our new home (for just shy of a year) and felt that aloha summed up our time there.  We say good bye to friends that we met, love towards the culture we were immersed in, and hello to the familiar setting/characters of WI.

So a lot of people have asked us how we feel being back.  Here it is...
We feel good.  We love the Midwest.  The smells, weather, our livelihoods, our house, we really could go on and on.  The weirdest thing for us has been coming back into our exact same lives here.  We talked about it the first day we were back.  We were driving through town and Racheal said to Lance "Does it feel like we didn't even leave?" and Lance replied "Yes, it's almost like it was a dream."  It is like we never left since we came back to everything we knew.  Granted it has, and still is taking awhile to unpack all of our stuff in storage, go through things that we don't need anymore, and try to reorganize our house, yard, and lives.  Here is the sign on our front door when we first arrived home.  And to us... this is home where our hearts lie.

The setting of the sun taken from the taxi.  Aloha.